Traditional mascaras are made of various film formers dispersed in one or more solvents. After application, the solvents evaporate and leave a rigid, liquid-impervious coating composed of the film formers on the eyelashes. Such coating is designed to adhere securely to the eyelashes and stays thereon for an extended period of time to achieve the desired long wear effect. However, such rigid, liquid-impervious coating, once formed, cannot be re-wetted by the mascara composition, which renders it very difficult to apply additional coatings to the eyelashes to freshen up the previously applied mascara or to boost the lash volume.
There is notable discomfort when a user tries to brush through mascara-covered eyelashes. Separation of eyelashes becomes extremely difficult, with significant clumping as well as potential flaking of the initial coating. Currently there is no commercially available mascara composition that allows comfortable re-application of the mascara over a previously applied, already-dried mascara coating for achieving a more dramatic effect. Therefore, in order to boost the lash volume and achieve the desired dramatic effect, the user typically has to completely remove the previously applied mascara coating and all other eye makeup before re-applying a more volumizing mascara product.
There is therefore a need for a new mascara composition that allows comfortable re-application over mascara-coated eyelashes. It will be especially advantageous to provide a mascara composition that enables the user to achieve a modest daytime look with just one initial coating of mascara, and then re-apply as many additional coatings as needed to continuously build up the lash volume to achieve a more dramatic evening look, without having to remove the initial coating of mascara and with minimum discomfort and clumping. It is also desired to provide a low smudge or zero smudge mascara composition that does not interact with the sebum of the skin and can therefore be worn by the user with comfort comparable to that of the conventional mascara products.